I have been keeping a very organized, but lengthy, dev log in a separate doc. It's probably unneccsary, but I'm the person who will get the involuntary urge to organize something at a random time so I took care of the problem now. Every ten work days (days that I spend at least an hour working on the game) I'll post a new dev log. I'll also try to do it on Saturdays for Screenshot Saturday, but I'm trying to keep my account off of inactive, and I don't know after when GameJolt considers it inactive.

I really appreciate any feedback you have, but if you do want to offer feedback please keep don't use it to call my work terrible or something along those lines. If you want to see any particular details about the development of the game or what applications I'm using, please make a shout or comment.

I think for ten working days aka about 20 hours, I got a lot done for my first time making a platformer game on Unity. The menu's a little empty, and so is the level, but I'm just starting so its fine. Thanks to everyone who's already followed the game and showed me support!

Day 1: February 21, 2023

Accomplishments & Progressions

• Imported sprites for grass and dirt tiles for a forest or nature level

• Created a tile palette for the grass and dirt tiles

• Added in grid for the tilemap

• Tested tilemap by creating a small platform area

• Began creating pixel art background for forest levels

• Made small adjustments to camera size

Encountered Problems and Solutions

• Tiles were appearing blurry in the tile palette and when placed on the grid

  • Unity pixel art blur fix | easy tutorial

• Background art size was difficult to determine

  • Create a basic mock-up of what the level scene will look like with item slots, stat bars, and other UI before creating background

Learned Skills and Techniques

• Learned how to use a grid tilemap

• Learned how to create a tile palette to scale with a grid tilemap

• Learned how to fix blurring with small pixel art images in Unity

Total Estimated Time Spent: 2 hrs

Day 2: February 23, 2023

Accomplishments & Progressions

• Created third potential design for Slime Ninja

• Started working on idle animation for Slime Ninja with 2nd design

Encountered Problems and Solutions

• Less realistic feel could be difficult to maintain with high amount of pixel in background

  • Will try to create different aspects of background, such as trees or vines, separately before pasting them into a combined piece for the background

Learned Skills and Techniques

• Learned some methods for creating smooth idle animations

  • Pixel Art Class - Simple Character Idle Animation

Total Estimated Time Spent: 1 hr 10 min

Day 3: February 24, 2023

Accomplishments & Progressions

• Finished idle animation for Slime Ninja with 2nd design (for now)

• Created first draft for midair pose of Slime Ninja

• Decided to repurpose midair pose draft into pre-take-off pose

• Began making midair pose frames

Encountered Problems and Solutions

• Idle animation for Slime Ninja felt too smooth and slow, like liquid

  • Lowered number of frames when shifting up and down during breath

• When the jump animation is made in Aseprite, it will have the space between the “ground” and the Slime Ninja. I think this space could affect importing images to animate in Unity because I’ve never done this before

  • Make the animation with the space. Once comfortable, create a second copy of the animation file and move each frame down to the same level to be sliced into different images for the animation from the spritesheet.

Learned Skills and Techniques

• Less frames in an animation can be better, depending on the purpose

• Researched more methods for creating pixel art character animations, specifically for jump animations and how they are coded into games

  • Small Sprite Animations | Pixel Art Timelapse

  • Jump Animation in Video Games

  • Necessities for jump: take-off pose, landing pose, midair pose (up, down, or both)

Total Estimated Time Spent: 1 hr 20 min

Day 4: February 25, 2023

Accomplishments & Progressions

• Created the running animation for Slime Ninja

• Continued working on the jumping animation for Slime Ninja

• Started brainstorming potential enemies for the game generally and for World 1

Encountered Problems and Solutions

• Had trouble making certain frames of the running position

  • Use my own running positions to determine how the certain frames should look

• Spent at least 30 minutes on my run animation, and it never quite looked right. At times it was playing smoothly, but it didn’t look like a run.

  • Began researching how run animations are made

  • Realized that in a run, two feet are off the ground at some point. Slime Ninja in the run animation was staying at the same level the entire time

Learned Skills and Techniques

• Researched 2D animation in Unity

  • 2D Animation in Unity (Tutorial)

  • Learned spritesheet animation basics for Unity

  • Learned basics for Unity’s Animation and Animator tools

• Researched more methods for creating pixel art character animations. Specifically for run animations and how to make run animations look smooth

  • Run Animations in Video Games

• Researched how to create a good background for the forest world

  • Choosing colors for your Pixel Art Backgrounds

  • Pixel Art Background Tutorial - (Aseprite)

Total Estimated Time Spent: 3 hrs

Day 5: February 26, 2023

Accomplishments & Progressions

• Added in game object for the player

• Imported still image of Slime Ninja to use as a placeholder animation

• Added Sprite Renderer to player game object with Slime NInja placeholder image

• Copied in script for character controller made by Brackeys

  • Character Controller Script

• Added the player controller script to the player game object

• Added a new layer for the player

• Added ground and ceiling checks to the player

  • Game objects that see if the player is touching the ground or ceiling

• Added Rigidbody 2D and gravity to the player game object

• Added a box collider 2D for the midsection to the player game object

• Added two circle collider 2Ds to the player game object, one collider for the lower portion of the player and one for the head

• Created new script for player movement

• Changed force of gravity on player and run speed

• Added player jumping and changed jump force

• Refined Slime Ninja’s running animation

• Created Guyoneer Logo Banner for the game splash screen

• Imported Guyoneer Logo Banner for the game splash screen

• SCRAPPED DUE TO INEFFICIENCY:

  • Made new scene for splash screen/game-open screen

  • Changed background color of the main camera in the splash screen scene

  • Created a script to control the splash screen scene

• Imported Babylon Battery Studios Logo for the game splash screen

• Edited game splash screen to have Guyoneer and BBS logos

• Made 16x20 pixel block letter alphabet to be used for certain UI

Encountered Problems and Solutions

• Needed to have a collider on the tiles, but I don’t know how to add a collider to the tiles from the tileset

  • Started researching how tilemap colliders are added

• Player controller script wouldn’t attach to the player game object because the class name did not match the script name

  • Changed the script name to “CharacterController2D”

• Using an entire scene as a splash screen is really inefficient unless one of the logos you are trying to display is an animation (don’t know how that would work)

  • Changed the actual splash screen and scrapped splash screen scene

Learned Skills and Techniques

• Reviewed how to add the player and movement elements into game

  • 2D Movement in Unity (Tutorial)

• Researched tilemap colliders and how to properly add them

  • Unity 2D Platformer Tutorial 7 - Adding Tilemap Colliders

Total Estimated Time Spent: 2 hrs 45 min

Day 6: March 3, 2023

Accomplishments & Progressions

• Starting working on start screen UI using 16x20 block alphabet Created a start button

  • Created an options button

  • Created an X button

• Continued working on the forest world background

• Changed camera background color to light blue

• Created a scene for the start screen menu

• Edited demo level map

• Planned several concepts and ideas, such as the demo/tutorial level and story ideas

Encountered Problems and Solutions

• Had a lot of trouble working with such a large canvas size for the background

  • Will create clouds, trees, and other background objects as separate images, having them fly by or move by in the background

• Q was extremely difficult to make using the 16x20 block alphabet format

  • Decided to have the quit button be an X instead of a QUIT button

Total Estimated Time Spent: 2 hrs 15 min

Day 7: March 4, 2023

Accomplishments & Progressions

• Started creating background elements for the forest world

  • Created first cloud image

  • Created second cloud image

  • Created third cloud image

  • Created fourth cloud image

  • Created fifth cloud image

• Started creating hut for demo/tutorial level

• Changed Slime Ninja reference image to have non-black outline

• Created Slime Ninja game logo for start screen menu

• Created a sitting frame for Slime Ninja

• Imported 5 background cloud elements

• Imported start button image

• Added button object for start button

Learned Skills and Techniques

• Researched how to create a good set of enemies for the game

  • How Do You Design a Cast of Enemies?

Total Estimated Time Spent: 2 hrs 30 min

Day 8: March 6, 2023

Accomplishments & Progressions

• Added start button image to the button object

• Changed the start button’s dimensions and scale

• Imported options button image

• Created options button object

• Imported Slime Ninja game logo image and added it to title screen

• Fixed colors of start and options button images

• Created credits button image and imported into Unity

• Created credits button object

• Added temporary start function of start button

Encountered Problems and Solutions

• Start button image had a strange choppy appearance and the green part was darker

  • Changed Compression to None

• Game would immediately change to demo level scene

  • Function can’t be called Start because that tells it when the game boots up

• Had trouble making the roof of the hut

  • Decided to make some concept sketches of the hut before making the rest

Learned Skills and Techniques

• Make sure to save scene before changing the name

Total Estimated Time Spent: 1 hr

Day 9: March 11, 2023

Accomplishments & Progressions

• Created canvas for options menu UI

• Added function to options button to make menu inactive and options active

• Created back button image and imported into Unity

• Created back button object in options and added function to go from options to menu

• Created new folder for animations

• Created new folder for prefabs

• Added fade in and out animation when switching from menu to demo level scene

• Change start button script to change a boolean to true

Encountered Problems and Solutions

• Level changer prefab can’t reference the start button for a variable because the start button only exists in the menu scene

  • Changed it so that start button script changes boolean and the level changer script contains the boolean

• There would be a brief moment where the menu would begin fading in again

  • Removed transition from Fade Out to Fade In in the animator

Learned Skills and Techniques

• Researched how to make a fade transition animation between scenes

  • How to Fade Between Scenes in Unity

Total Estimated Time Spent: 1 hr 20 min

Day 10: March 12, 2023

Accomplishments & Progressions

• Created concept art for demo level hut in sketchbook for reference

• Finished shabby hut for demo level and imported into Unity

Total Estimated Time Spent: 1 hr 40 min